John,
It may be possible to save the head. If only the keeper-spring retainer has
failed it may even be possible to repair the works with the head in place.
If the end of the valve is trashed then it will have to come off. Hopefully
the piston was not damaged. Once the head is off since that was a low
mileage rebuild you may just need to replace the valves. Unfortunately this
failure is a common problem with the older AMC heads.

It was very nice meeting you last night. Just let me know if I can be of
further help.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
jhlauterbach
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 10:42 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Diagnosis in DeLand

Dennis Haynes was kind enough to detour over to DeLand this evening and take
a look at my Vanagon.  I about 15 minutes, Dennis had found the cause of my
problems.  The intake valve on #1 cylinder had lost its keeper and was
floating around somewhere in the cylinder head.  So, the good news is that I
don't have to do anymore troubleshooting and exchange of parts.  Bad news is
that I need to find a shop that is competent to do an in-van head
replacement on a 1.9L waterboxer.  Looking for shop that has recently done
waterboxer heads.

Thank you again, Dennis.

John